


Flashback

by iiii



Series: Incidents in Transit [17]
Category: Firefly, Supernatural
Genre: Exposition, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-13 22:25:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3398444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iiii/pseuds/iiii





	1. Chapter 1

Dean was surprised enough at hearing Lisa’s voice on the phone that he gave the name of the motel and the room number.

Sam let her in.

"Lisa,” Dean began.

"I'm not Lisa."

"Fine, 'Julie,' how'd you get here so fast?"

She extended a set of abalone-iridescent wings. Dean started having trouble breathing.

"How long?"

She set additional wards around the room. 

Dean tried again. "How long have you been... How long?"

"Fall of 2009."

"Two thou..." Dean was staggered at that, rallied. "I saw you possessed."

"You saw me play-acting."

Dean lurched for the bathroom.

"What do you want?" Sam asked. 

"We want to put you two in a time capsule and launch you into space. In exchange we'll get your brother Adam out of the cage and put him back in Heaven where he belongs." 

Sam still looked murderously angry, but now he looked confused as hell, too. "What?" 

"You want to wait for your brother to finish vomiting, or should I go ahead and you can fill him in later?" 

Sam went to check on Dean. When they came back out of the bathroom Dean kept going, slamming the outside door behind him, pointedly never looking at the angel. 

Sam crossed his arms and glared at her. “Make it quick.”


	2. Chapter 2

"Fine. Best we can forecast, Michael's version of the apocalypse means the end of the human race, which would be a disaster for us angels. Not all that good for you people, either. So some of us – Joshua’s band – we have a plan to save humanity. To make it work we need to delay the last battle. The simplest way to do that is to put you two where you can’t be found. Archangels can’t fight without their armor. And there’s no place on Earth where you’ll stay hidden long enough. So, time capsule. In space."

Sam glared at her some more, then sat down on a bed. "OK, now the long version."

“Right. Background. You ever sat down and thought through the ecology of Heaven? No? 'Course not. Think now. From whence is the power of Heaven derived? In the beginning we were sustained directly of God, but He is long since withdrawn from us. These days, the power of Heaven is supplied by the souls of all the dead humans we've got plugged into our matrix. That’s my day job, by the way. I’m one of Joshua’s under-gardeners. We make the little personal heavens that house each soul. Treat a human soul right, it's a perpetual motion machine. Emits enough juice to power its own illusion projector with some left over. Collectively, it’s enough to sustain the structure of Heaven, and all the angels, plus a generous surplus. Everyone's happy."

Sam snorted.

"Everyone except you,” she said. “Back to the apocalypse. Worst-case scenario, Lucifer wins. He’ll celebrate by exterminating the rest of living humanity. Then he will methodically destroy every last human soul, whether they’re rested in Heaven, damned in Hell, lingering in the veil, wherever. Once you're all gone... he seems to think that if he erases humans, God will come back and it'll be like in the beginning. Like a child deciding that if he destroys every other possible source of food, Mommy will put him back on the teat."

"Ew."

"Yup. We're pretty sure he's wrong, too. We think when God does decide to show up again, it won't be to reward disobedience. Lucifer will wipe you out. When that doesn’t bring God back, Lucifer will cannibalize the other angels. At first it'll be to punish those who did not stand with him. Then it'll be because he needs the juice. Then he’ll work his way through every other entity out there until he's alone in the universe. Or maybe he'll run into something that can take him. By then, though, you and I won’t care. Humans and angels will both be extinct."

"And if Michael wins?"

"Most likely scenario, once Michael wins, he’ll lead the angelic occupation of Earth and the establishment of Paradise. After that, well… Michael and his followers are certain God will come back then – a reward for their service –"

“Wait. Everyone except you is sure God will be back right after the apocalypse? Why’s that?”

“There’s a prophecy that says God will be back after the apocalypse.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, well, you know what prophecies are like. What is _expected_ often isn't quite what was _promised_ , and they’re notoriously vague as to time. The Hierarchy have convinced themselves that ‘after’ in this case must mean ‘immediately following.’ But ‘after’ could mean any time in the half of eternity that starts with the apocalypse, you see? If it turns out Joshua is wrong, so, we’ll have done some unnecessary planning and prep work. We will still rejoice that our Father has returned. But if Joshua is right… if he’s right, and we do not act, we will have earned the coming horrors.”

“And you think God isn't going to show up right away.”

“No. Well, He might. He will do what He does, in His own time. But there have been other crises, other prophecies. God’s still gone. So. Michael wins the apocalypse. Angels occupy Earth and create the Paradise that is foretold, but God doesn’t show. Rank-and-file angels realize that the Hierarchy has been bullshitting them and stop following orders. The only behavioral models we’ve got are you people, so when we stop obeying we’ll start acting like humans. Toddlers, specifically – most of us have never had occasion to develop any emotional maturity. A bunch of babies with angel-level fire power, angry and disappointed because Michael said God would be back by now and Daddy still hasn’t shown. The ones who aren’t throwing pointless tantrums will be settling old scores and making up new crap to fight over. Think _Lord of the Flies_. Before too long they’ll work out that the only leverage the Hierarchy really has is control of Heaven’s main grid. They’ll start trying to take pieces of it. And they’ll start personally buying souls from live humans so they can have an independent power source. Lucifer bought Lilith, and got himself caged. But that was a long time ago. Just recently Balthazar bought Aaron Birch’s soul without any repercussion but a talking-to from a falling seraph.”

“No – Castiel killed Balthazar.”

“Eventually. And not because of Aaron Birch. The idea of buying souls will get popular, and too many angels will try to create their own soul-store. That'll up the ante on the bickering. Factions will turn into fiefdoms, and we'll start blowing up each other's stockpiles. Meanwhile, what’s left of living humanity peters out over the course of the next few centuries."

Sam raised an interrogative eyebrow.

"Think about it," she said. "Earth will be openly run by angels. You humans will have your noses rubbed in the fact that you aren't the masters of the universe. You won’t even be masters of your own planet. You’ll be a food crop, raised for the benefit of angels. Not so much _people_ as _agriculture_. Humans don't reproduce to replacement levels in captivity. They never have. We think you humans are going to experience Paradise as captivity, or close enough to have the same effect, anyway. And that’s starting from a greatly reduced post-apocalypse population, in a markedly less hospitable environment than Earth is even now. It'll take a while, but you will die out. And then? No more new souls. Heaven is going to have to run in perpetuity on the souls held in Heaven on the day humans perish from the Earth. I don’t know whether Michael’s never considered the problem, or if he imagines that Heaven has so many golden eggs we can afford to let all the geese die."

"You think he's wrong about that, too?"

"With live humanity dwindling and factions among the angels fighting for control of the main grid, causing we-don’t-know-how-much damage along the way? Michael, in his arrogance, believes himself capable of setting Heaven permanently in order. We think he will retain that delusion until it is too late. We will use you up. Not all of you – we think there will still be some intact souls left in Heaven when sense finally prevails. Whatever angels survive the infighting will then get to spend eternity nursemaiding the remnants. And God will leave us to scratch by in the ruins we’ve made."

“So, let’s hear it. The plan.”

“We take what prophecy says and make it work for us. Prophecy says the Apocalypse will happen on Earth. Nothing says the human race as a whole has to be standing around to watch. If we want humanity alive and thriving – and we do – we need to delay the battle long enough to move your people someplace else. Like I said, the simplest way to get that done starts with putting you and your brother someplace out of the way. Irretrievably out of the way – if it is physically possible for the archangels to get to you, they will. So that's where the time capsule comes in. We wrap you two up tight, proofed against space and time and detection by angels or anything else, and launch you off that-a-way."

She pointed to a patch of ceiling, which became transparent. The view zoomed dizzyingly out through the daylight atmosphere to starry black, and then focused in on one small patch of stars. A big white sun, surrounded by four smaller stars, each orbited by smaller bodies. "That’s the system we're planning to evacuate humanity to. You'll be the pioneers." She stopped pointing, and the ceiling became solid again. “It’ll take a lot of work and… a lot of work, but there’s room there for all the people, room for exponential expansion. We’ve already started slipping the secrets of the universe to the right scientists, getting in politicians’ ears, setting the stage. There are a trillion fiddly details to attend to. But when we’re done, humans will be expanding into the new frontier. Then we collect your little capsule down in our own time, bring you two back to Earth. The last battle happens without hurting anyone you'll care about. Wins all around."

"You still think you can make us battle to the death?"

"I think I'm giving you the chance to put it off for a couple centuries, and save everybody else while you're at it."

"And in exchange, you spring Adam."

"Yes. As soon as you two agree to go ahead, we will get him out."

Sam thought a minute. “How do you plan to find us, once we're lost in space?”

“Timed transponder, set to go off in three millennia.”

Sam thought some more. “Yeah, I’m going to need to talk to Dean about all that.”

“Of course. When you decide you’re in, give us a call. The number’s in your phone. Don’t pray – anyone can hear you pray.”

“Yeah, ok. But I gotta ask, why are you wearing his ex?”

“If what you’re asking is why I got picked to come recruit you, it’s because we figured you’d hesitate to kill this body. Long enough to let me talk, anyway. You two are known for being well-armed and trigger-happy.”

“Yeah, that part I figured, but you said you’ve been in there for years. For the whole time Dean was living with… with what he thought was Lisa. What’s up with that?”

“Oh. That.” She sighed. “After Castiel made you unplottable, Zachariah near went nuts trying to find you. You know how he passed your pictures around to all the manic street preachers? He also located every potential vessel in North America and had the strategically placed ones inhabited by angels. You'd be surprised, I think, by how many of the people you've met over the years turned out to be vessels. Angelic vessels disproportionately turned up in the vicinity of monsters, and vice versa. It's a statistically significant correlation. There's some debate, actually, whether that's a preexisting inherent effect of supernatural potential, or if it's a recent development on account of you two. And if it’s the vessels that attract the monsters, or vice versa."

"Fascinating," Sam said icily.

“Yeah, anyway, the angel that fit Lisa turned out to be me. And I was never ordered home, so...”

Sam stood up. "Get out."

"You'll call?"

"Get. Out."

She went.

*****

Sam waited until lunch the next day before asking Dean, "So, do you want to build a time capsule?"


End file.
